Library Online: Hallam Big Read

What is the Big Read? 

The Big Read has been running since 2019 at the University with the hopes of bringing staff and students together through a common ground - reading! 

Each year we pick a book that we think our Hallam community will enjoy reading and talking about, while also selecting titles that will educate and challenge everyone who reads it. 

The best part? Everyone gets a free copy of the book!

Big Read 2022-23

This year's Big Read is I Belong Here – A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain by Anita Sethi, a moving first-person account of what it means to question your place in the world, and to reconnect with the natural world and the spaces you call home.  Find out more, including how to get your free copy, from the Big Read 2022-23 site.

The Library will be running events and activities connected with the book and its themes throughout this academic year. In the meantime, get your free copy and enjoy reading and talking about identity and belonging. If, when you have finished the book, you don’t want to keep your copy, please pass it on or drop it back at your campus library. 

We’d love to see a photo of your copy of the book, wherever you might be reading it, and hear your thoughts: tag us with #hallambigread on social media.

Previous Big Read books

We pick a new Big Read title each year.  You can find out more about each of our previous Big Read books by following the links to their webpages.

Big Read 2021-22

How to Save Our Planet: the Facts by Mark Maslin

Big Read 2020-21 

Natives: race and class in the ruins of empire by Akala

 Big Read 2019-20

My Name is Leon, by Kit de Waal

Writing competition

As part of The Big Read 2021-22, the Library and Humanities Department ran a writing competition across the University for short pieces of up to 1,000 words across Non-Fiction, Poetry and Fiction with the theme 'How we saved our planet'.  We received some fantastic submissions and prizes were awarded in each category.